Junk In, Junk Out: The Senate HELP Hearing Confirmed What We Already Knew About the War on Medication Abortion

FROM THE ARTICLE

Op-ed by PRH President and CEO Dr. Jamilia Perritt, Destiny Lopez (Guttmacher Institute) and Kirsten Moore (EMAA Project).

On Jan. 14, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a hearing framed as an inquiry into the safety of medication abortion. In reality, it will be an opportunity for the committee’s antiabortion majority to showcase junk science and misleading narratives to undermine access to mifepristone—the first of two drugs in a commonly used medication abortion and miscarriage care regimens.

Mifepristone has been used safely and effectively for more than two decades, supported by an extensive body of evidence and endorsed by major medical organizations including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association and numerous other leading medical societies. In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved mifepristone in 2000 and has repeatedly reviewed the medication since, each time reaching the same conclusion that it is safe and effective.